President Barack Obama’s campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki was aware
Treasury Department officials crafted the press releases and public
messaging for General Motors during the 2009 auto industry bailout, documents obtained by The Daily Caller show.
Psaki was a White House deputy press secretary at the time. She and fellow White House staffers Brian Deese and Amy Brundage show up on the emails in which the Treasury Department
was rewriting press releases for GM.
TheDC obtained these internal Treasury Department documents in 2011 but an agreement with the source prevented their publication until now. The inclusion of Psaki, Deese and Brundage in these communications is reported here for the first time.
Psaki has since returned to Obama’s political campaign as his traveling press secretary.
Obama campaign spokespersons haven’t responded to TheDC’s requests for comment. But in an interview with CBS News during her White House tenure, Psaki acknowledged that “anything we say can reflect on the president.”
In one email message obtained by TheDC, the Treasury Department’s Jenni Engebretsen wrote to General Motors officials on Friday, May 29, 2009. Engebretsen was reacting to a draft of a press release she received from GM, about the company ceasing operations at several factories.
“We would ask that you move the reference to Treasury down to the third paragraph, taking it out of the lede,’” she wrote. “Please let us know if this presents any issues.”
“Lede” is a slang term for the opening paragraph of a news story or press release. Asking GM to remove the Treasury Department from the lede was a request to downplay its significance, and a sign that the Obama administration sought to minimize the public perception of its role in the GM bailout.
Psaki was a White House deputy press secretary at the time. She and fellow White House staffers Brian Deese and Amy Brundage show up on the emails in which the Treasury Department
was rewriting press releases for GM.TheDC obtained these internal Treasury Department documents in 2011 but an agreement with the source prevented their publication until now. The inclusion of Psaki, Deese and Brundage in these communications is reported here for the first time.
Psaki has since returned to Obama’s political campaign as his traveling press secretary.
Obama campaign spokespersons haven’t responded to TheDC’s requests for comment. But in an interview with CBS News during her White House tenure, Psaki acknowledged that “anything we say can reflect on the president.”
In one email message obtained by TheDC, the Treasury Department’s Jenni Engebretsen wrote to General Motors officials on Friday, May 29, 2009. Engebretsen was reacting to a draft of a press release she received from GM, about the company
ceasing operations at several factories.“We would ask that you move the reference to Treasury down to the third paragraph, taking it out of the lede,’” she wrote. “Please let us know if this presents any issues.”
“Lede” is a slang term for the opening paragraph of a news story or press release. Asking GM to remove the Treasury Department from the lede was a request to downplay its significance, and a sign that the Obama administration sought to minimize the public perception of its role in the GM bailout.
No comments:
Post a Comment